Has anyone here personally experienced wake turbulence?

Oh, HELL yes!

My story is a little bit different than most. I didn't fly into the wake on a nearly parallel course. Mine was nearly perpendicular.

I was landing at a large airport in southern Florida on a VERY calm morning. The 727 took off headed straight for the coast on an East heading. I was arriving from the west and saw his takeoff roll, noted his rotation point, and realizing that his wake would drift downwind, and realizing that I was already slated to land to the south on a runway whose approach end intersected the approach end of the 727's runway, I watched my time very closely to make sure I met the MINIMUM recommendations to avoid the turbulence. MAXIMUM mistake.

As I began my flare I flew into the up gust from the first vortex. Being too stupid to recognize what was going on I assumed it was a thermal from the runway and gently pushed my 172 back down toward the runway; easing off the rest of the power. That's when I flew into the down gust of the first vortex and started to make what I thought was a reasonable correction - still too stupid to correct with full throttle. Then I hit the down gust of the 727's right hand vortex and went to full throttle and pulled the nose up as high as I dared to avoid being slammed into the runway. Well, at last I had full throttle. Then, with the stall horn blaring and the ground approaching I hit the up gust from the second vortex. It did wonders for my nearly non-existant angle of attack. I gripped my seat cushion even tighter. I threaded the slow speed needle, trying to rotate the aircraft abruptly down without simultaneously increasing the angle of attack which, according to the stall horn was already about 10 decibels louder than critical.

Did a go around. Made a normal landing. Finally figured out what I should have understood a mile away from the approach end of the runway when I could have asked for a 360 to kill off an extra two minutes instead of me.

Those recommendations for avoiding turbulence are recommendations; not guarantees. You can afford to give yourself extra time; especially if the air is VERY calm.

Happy Landings!

Flying fighters and in formation I have experienced a fair share of wake turbulence. It knocks you a bit but control is immediate and effective. Smaller aircraft, however, if caught in the wake turbulence of larger aircraft, can have a tough time in recovering and may even be damaged. Remember that wake turbulence may exist even if the aircraft has travelled further on and one could be caught totally unaware.

Smaller aircraft on the ground can be toppled or destroyed by wake turbulence

Yes I have, while in college, I took off right after a DC-9...While the -9 isnt known for severe wake turbulance like the 757, its more than i care to argue with when im in a Warrior... The controller must not have been thinking or something but he game me clearance to takeoff immediatly after the DC-9 got off the gound... I thought for a minute about wake turbulance but being young and fearless, I went for it anyway... dumb move... about 200-250 ft. AGL, I ran smack into the wake... put me into at least 75 degrees of bank... My first reaction was that i had stalled and was in a spin, but i couldnt find the ground so I checked my attitude indicator, it showed me in about 75 degrees of bank... I went nose level and used full deflection to correct the airplane... You can bet that if you ever end up on one of my flights, I won't be taking ANY chances when it comes to wake turbulance again...

I caught some wake turbulence landing after a 737 once, but if you do a 360* turn in an aircraft you will also catch you're own wake turbulence.

I was in the back seat of a Cessna 180 that got caught in WT at Atlanta Hartsfield, a long time ago when GA aircraft still used that field. Rolled us 90 degrees to the right and tore the wing off, crumpled the main gear, and turned the prop into a pretzel.

The guy who was flying cried for the next three years straight and never got into another airplane again.

As a big iron pilot in later years, we often flew close behind the last guy in tight quarters and funky crosswinds. I watched a DC-10 pilot rip a wing engine nacelle off on the ground at the old HongKong airport because he got looped, and we all got bumped around on occasion. HongKong was the scariest because of the way it stuck out into the bay. LAX was another place where you always rode the last guy's smoke.

It's just like the rest of the world. There's too many of everything.

Yes, while on a recent flight out of the SF Bay area, I passed behind an incoming 737, about 1/2 mile. The plane was slow and dirty and creating a lot of wake. The controller was kind enough to warn me about it and probably 10 seconds later I felt it. Luckily, it wasn't too bad; just kind of tipped us a little sideways for a moment, kind of like flying through a strong thermal.

One of the coolest examples I have seen of it was at a little demo I was at a few years ago. They were flying a Korean war vintage twin equipped with smoke generators. As the plane flew over with the SG's on, you could physically see the wake vortices coming off each wing tip. Looked a lot like horizontal tornadoes that continued to swirl for some time behind the plane and slowly settled to the ground.

I hit wake turbulence on short final into the Las Vegas airport in a Piper PA28. Turned the plane sideways. Had to turn it back level again.

On final into SFO landing on 28R. There was a 747 about 1/4 mile ahead of us landing on 28L and a quratering headwind that blew his wake directly into our approach path. I was flying a CRJ-200 with 50 people in back.

We were aware of the wake, and I flew the approach about 1 dot high on the ILS, but at some point I had to return to glideslope in order to land. About 50-100 feet up we got hit HARD with it. Rolled me about 20-30 degrees while I was beginning my flare. I recovered completely and managed to get it on the centerline, but it was still not pretty. Needless to say that was not the smoothest landing I've ever made, but it really reinforced what wake can do to you.

I did. we encounter our own wake turbulence during air shows. we pull tight turns during a SAR demonstration, and from time to time we fly through the wake turbulence of our own main rotor.

fortunately we are light category :)

Yes--in the Air Force we followed one another out in pretty close order--it can be violent if you are too close----I really hated side yaw causing turbulance on landing--that was worse.